Freizeitland Geiselwind

The little town of Geiselwind in Bavaria is, weirdly enough, best known for it’s Truck Stop. There isn’t anything too special they do compared to other Truck Stop’s, they offer a wide variety of good food, they have space for a lot of Semi Trucks and the most unique thing about the place is that every now and then they host a concert or festival at or near the venue. On the other side of the town is their second attraction: A small Amusement Park with a somewhat bad reputation in our Coaster Community. Over the years it became the last resting place for many formerly travelling attractions and only very recently, after a change in ownership in 2016, the Park began to give it more a clear direction and Themed Areas. I first visited the Amusement Park Geiselwind (That’s really the closest and best translation of the German name I can give you) during the Season Opening in April 2019.

Geiselwind is one of the smaller Parks here in Germany. Despite this you can still easily divide it into a lower section that features most of the Rides and Shops and a upper, or Forest, section that has only a handful of attractions, but it is home to their Animals. That lower section is also the main reason why they have the reputation they have. It really has the overall vibe of being on a temporary fairground, however there are already signs that they are trying to improve things. A Area in the middle, with mostly water based rides, got Themed up as a Pirate Village and the new for 2019 section ist going to be Asia Themed. Both Rides, a Roller Coaster and a Frisbee Style Swing Ride, where already in operation for the Season Opening, but construction on the buildings and landscaping was still going on. They are really working on improving things here.

Only 2 of their currently 6 Roller Coasters are permanent installations that so far only operated at Geiselwind, the other 4 previously where traveling coasters at some point and 2 of them operated for 1 Season each at the Park previously, but from the looks of it both are now here to stay. It also may come as a surprise that this small Park is home to Germany’s only Vekoma Boomerang. Honestly it always surprises me when I hear that little fact. And it is a fairly good example as well. It gave us good rides with only very minor headbanging, sitting in the back car the Looping was surprisingly intense on the reverse trip and overall I have nothing really to complain about. The other permanent Coaster is a small Spinning Coaster with unique cars that feel like sitting in a Brake Dancer. The Layout is just a simple Oval with a Helix thrown in for good fun. It is build inside and around a small mountain Structure and the unpredictable nature of the free spinning cars makes this a lot of fun.

The other Coasters are a fairly Standard Powered Coaster, Cobra, a small formerly traveling coaster that pack’s in a Inversion and a long Helix into a footprint roughly the size of a Flatride. Newest addition is Black Hole (Though now known as Dragons Cave), a mostly Indoor Coaster that seats up to 4 Riders in small Vehicles with seating similar to a Log Flume. It has no Restraints what so ever and considering it was build in the late 80’s and was a traveling ride for most of it’s life it’s still surprisingly smooth. Being mostly indoors you can’t really predict the layout, but considering the lack of restraints there aren’t any rapid transitions or airtime moments. The last coaster is a pink Wacky Worm with a Dog Themed train. Most noteable feature of this Wacky Worm is that it doesn’t brake on the drop or in the station resulting in it actually pulling what can only be described as actual lateral forces through the last and first corners. It is now my favorite Wacky Worm.

The rest of the attractions is a at times seemingly random collection of mostly Flatrides. The Logflume is a standard affair with two bigger and one tiny drop. They have classics like a Brake Dancer, Enterprise, Condor and Observation Tower. Horrorfans can visit the Horror Clinic, a small scare maze with live actors. This doesn’t cost extra and seems to be available all year round. A bit weird was that we counted a total of 4 different Drop Towers, 2 smaller ones for Kids and 2 Bigger ones. There really isn’t anything too special in this collection of rides, but everyone should be able to find something that he likes.

In terms of Shows we visited only one. It was a fairly mediocre magic / illusion show with a very awkward and terrible part based around a smartphone voice assistant. The Show lacks proper pacing and it doesn’t have any tricks in it that leave a impression lasting any longer than the Show itself. Patrick Keaton, host of the Show, is a very fun person to watch and I really hope that he can improve on this Show to make it better in the future.

As mentioned above Geiselwind is home to some Animals, but they are mostly local to Germany with a some Monkeys for good measure. While I have no doubt that these Animals are treated well, I do have the suspicion that this aspect will be phased out in the next couple of years to concentrate more on the Theme Park aspect.

During our visit the new China Themed expansion was under heavy construction and aside from the cliche Asian music playing in the area it understandably lacked the visual feel. But judging by the also new buildings that make up a Pirate Area in the middle of the Park I have high hopes for this ending up looking good as well. We had some Food here as well. I opted for their Pirate Burger with Fries. The Burger was really good and a solid few levels above your average Fast Food from the big chains. The Fries where big, chunky and well done, but way too salty for my liking. The Portion was really big and the prize very fair. I have nothing to complain here.

Overall Geiselwind is doing their best to improve on their reputation, but there are many places that still feel like they where thrown together without much thought or effort. It is on the smaller side and I would consider it more like a half-day Park, though you can easily combine your visit here with Schloss Thurn, a even smaller and much more regional Park, that is just half an hour away. While we had fun here, it’s still lacking a Ride that says “I have to go there”